Study Overview
Published: Journal of Diabetes Mellitus
Category: Cardiovascular Health, Healthy Living at Every Age, Weight Management
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Introduction:
Nutrition and physical activity (PA) are key components for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. There remains a paucity of trial data on the effect of specific nutritional interventions on PA and sedentary time. One question is how a common nutrient-dense food like avocado may impact PA and sedentary time in Hispanic/Latino families; a group that reports the lowest levels of PA.
Study Design:
6-month clustered randomized controlled trial.
Setting/Participants:
72 families (235 individuals) who identified as Hispanic/Latino were enrolled via the San Ysidro Health Center (San Diego, CA) between April 2017—June 2018.
Intervention:
After a 2-week run-in period, 35 families were randomized to the intervention arm (14 avocados/family/week) and 37 families were assigned to the control arm (3 avocados/family/week).
Main outcome measures:
Linear mixed-effects models were used to assess changes in PA (metabolic equivalent minutes per week, MET-mins/wk) between the groups during the 6-month trial. Secondary outcomes included: sedentary time (mins/wk), body mass index (BMI), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP).
Results:
An adherence goal of greater than 80% was achieved for both arms. Compared to the control group, total mean PA increased by 2,197 MET-mins/wk more in the intervention group (p<0.01), driven by between-group differences in moderate (p<0.01) versus vigorous (p=0.06) PA. After accounting for longitudinal repeated measures per participant and nested family effects, total adult PA remained significantly higher in the intervention versus control group (+1163 MET-mins/wk on average per participant) with a significant intervention interaction term (p<0.01). There were no significant changes in sedentary time, BMI, or BP.
Conclusions:
Higher allocation of avocados was associated with significantly higher PA and no adverse changes in BMI or BP, suggesting this nutritional intervention may have beneficial pleiotropic effects.
Trial Registration:
This clinical trial was registered under clinicaltrials.gov study identifier NCT02903433 before enrollment.
